Black History Month

Today's books of the weeks have all been chosen in relation to Black History Month: Standing Firm in Power and Pride.

Life on Mars by Tracy K Smith
Recommended by Mr Hager

Life on Mars,Tracy K Smith’s 2011 poetry collection, is a remarkable, versatile work which takes ‘space' as its central metaphor, alongside the work of David Bowie and great science-fiction films of the past. She pushes the boundaries of what ‘space’ can mean, and sues it to ask many questions about life and death, about religion and the quest for meaning in life, about the direction that we as a human race are moving in - as well as specifically the direction of travel in America - and about the best and worst of human actions towards each other.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Recommended by Mrs Thomas

Feted American writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, whose works explore Black culture in the American South of the early 20th Century. She was a highly educated woman who earned a scholarship to attend Columbia University and was able to write her great classic Their Eyes Were Watching God thanks to an award from the Guggenheim Foundation. The novel, set in the first incorporated Black town in the US, is a richly lyrical bildungsroman, with a lovable dreamer as protagonist. The vernacular style rewards readers who persevere: while Hurston’s fidelity to the dialect of the South can frustrate initially, it is the very authenticity of speech that brings Hurston’s characters to life.

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
Recommended by Dr Duits

This is a brilliant analysis of the human social and psychological tendency to stratify societies in castes, often using race as the key distinguisher. She highlights the particular characteristics of caste-based societies and the harmful consequences their populations suffer.

Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.
Recommended by Mr Gardner

An unsurpassed lyricist and probably the most influential living poet of high quality. DAMN., Lamar's fourth studio album, picked up the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music and provides a relatively accessible way in to his work if you haven't listened to any before.

Sula by Toni Morrison
Recommended by Mrs Pemberton

Written in Morrison’s frank and uncompromising style this is a short but hard-hitting story about two friends growing up surrounded by racism, social injustice and segregation. As they grow and discover themselves and who they are, their lives become vastly different in shape and style. An unforgivable event, straight-forward but complex, tears apart their friendships and challenges who they are and what they hold true.

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Recommended by India Gammon

Noughts and Crosses explores themes of systemic racism and privilege through a dystopian setting in which a white underclass (Noughts) are oppressed by the black ruling class (Crosses). A must-read for young adults.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Recommended by Mrs Cummings

I’d like to recommend The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Khalil is fatally shot by a police office. Starr is the only witness and what she says next could destroy her community. This is a challenging read, a page-turner with a strong message. It was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the author tries to help her readers understand the experiences of young Black people in America. Published in 2017, it is one of the United States’ most challenged books.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Recommended by Dagmar Smith

I highly recommend reading An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. My daughter had recommended the book after reading it in Y12 for her English-A-level course. It took me a third of the book to really get into it and then I couldn’t put it down. The story is set eighteen months into their fairy-tale marriage, when a new husband is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. A reviewer comments: 'The novel is an insightful and emotional exploration of a Black love story, the strains of systemic injustice on a marriage, and the specific challenges faced by Black individuals and couples due to mass incarceration in America. The novel highlights crucial themes of Black love, marriage, and resilience, providing a powerful and thought-provoking narrative that is relevant to understanding Black history and experiences.'

The Rebel's Clinic by Adam Shatz

Recommended by Miss McLaren

The Rebel's Clinic is a fascinating and thought-provoking introduction to the work of psychiatrist and political philosopher Frantz Fanon, whose Black Skin, White Mask and The Wretched of the Earth were pivotal texts in the anti-colonial movements of the 1950s and 60s. Shatz traces the development of Fanon's ideas about race, colonialism and revolution through his experiences growing up in the French colony of Martinique, fighting for the Free French Forces in World War II, and studying medicine in Lyon. His encounters with the glaring racist caricatures that permeated French perceptions of people of colour shaped his thinking irrevocably, but he also challenged identity politics, developing a perspective which, as Shatz puts it, fused the poetics of Negritude with existentialism : 'my black skin is not the repository of specific values … I am a man, and I have to rework the world’s past from the very beginning … The density of History determines none of my acts. I am my own foundation.’ After being posted to a psychiatric hospital in Blida-Joinville, Fanon joined the FLN in its fight for Algerian independence, a brutal conflict which determined the rest of his short life (he died of leukaemia, at the age of 36) and both hardened and challenged his beliefs. Shatz's biography doesn't just consider Fanon's ideas in relation to his contemporary context, and the work of other revolutionary leaders and thinkers, such as Aime Cesaire, Patrice Lumumba and James Baldwin - but also in relation to today's world, in an epilogue which analyses a diverse range of modern political movements, philosophies and ideologies through the lens of his ideas. Hatred, Fanon argued, does not constitute a political programme: this biography is essential reading for anyone interested in finding an alternative.  

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Recommended by Vanessa Muir

Revenge. Treasure. Secret identities. Betrayal. This classic by Alexandre Dumas has it all — and it’s one of the most exciting adventure stories ever written. Dumas was the grandson of an enslaved woman from Haiti, and his father became the highest-ranking Black general in European history. His heritage shaped the novel’s outsider hero, Edmond Dantès, who turns injustice into strength. A thrilling story — and a powerful Black History Month read.

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to today's post. You can find previous Black History Month posts here:

• Adam Seydo discusses Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Alex Freydas introduces South African poet Lee Mokobe
• Black History Month 2023: Saluting our Sisters
• Malcolm Cocks, former Head of DIE, reviews Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud
• Ryan Ko reviews Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
• Black History Month 2019 reading recommendations